Relative Strangers by Kathy Lynn Emerson Page B

the same resistance.
    “Fine. Her name is Dina. I used to be married to her.” The pencil snapped in two.
    If the atmosphere between them had been awkward and strained before, discomfort now took on a new dimension. Corrie’s first thought was that he was still in love with his ex-wife. Her second was that he hated her guts.
    “You are entirely too easy to read.” He sounded disgruntled. “Let’s set the record straight. My marriage was a mistake, and I make it a practice not to repeat my mistakes.”
    “So you gave up on women?”
    “No. I gave up on marriage.”
    Corrie released her death grip on the doorknob and turned to face him fully. “I’ve told you before that I’m not looking for a husband. I meant that. You’re perfectly safe from me.”
    His sudden grin rocked her. “Does that mean you want—?”
    “All I want is to find out why I see Adrienne when no one else does.”
    A decided twinkle came into Lucas’s eyes. For a moment Corrie thought he was going to come out from behind the desk and try to kiss her again. Instead, to her secret disappointment, he stayed put.
    “That’s that, then,” he said. “I’m glad we understand each other.”
    “Right.” This time she managed to leave the office before either of them said anything more.
    He understood her? She really doubted it. And she certainly didn’t have a clue as to what was going on in his mind. He blew hot and cold. One moment he said he was attracted to her. The next he implied he’d sworn off impulsive relationships for good. Then he twinkled at her! Was that supposed to mean he’d consider a vacation fling as long as she didn’t expect him to marry her?
    Muttering under her breath about charming, know-it-all men and throwing in a few choice words about meddling matchmakers for good measure, Corrie went to retrieve her unread novel from the chair in the lobby.
    Of course he was charming. It was his job to be charming. She’d do well to remember that!
    * * * *
    Inside his office, Lucas sat staring at the door for a long time after Corrie left. What was it about the woman that fascinated him so? And what on earth had possessed him to mention Dina?
    Why he continued to be physically attracted to Corrie was a mystery to him. She certainly wasn’t the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. And she wasn’t the easiest to get along with, not by a long shot. Prickly about summed it up.
    And yet he felt this constant urge to touch her. He hadn’t wanted to let go of her hand earlier, even though hanging on to it would have been faintly ridiculous.
    Expressing his anger at Kelvin had seemed preferable to hauling Corrie into his arms and kissing her senseless. He’d probably sounded like a damned fool, ranting on like that. No better than Kelvin himself.
    Corrie Ballantyne was turning him into an emotional basket case. This had to stop.
    It would stop when they settled this ghost business, he decided, reaching for a sheet of paper. He intended to make notes on what he knew to date. There had to be a logical explanation. The most likely one, unfortunately, was that the woman he was so powerfully drawn to was seeing things that weren’t there.
    That fact alone ought to stop him from thinking of ways to get her into his bed. He didn’t have time for this nonsense. He had work to do. A hotel to run.
    Ghosts! Preposterous! He crumpled the still-blank page and tossed it into the wastepaper basket.
    He could admit he’d had moments when he’d felt very close to his ancestors here in this office, relishing the long tradition behind him at the Sinclair House. Dina had once accused him of ancestor worship. But to actually see one of them? Communicate with her? To all intents and purposes relive a bit of another person’s life? That was the stuff of fantasy.
    Not real. Impossible.
    Was it also fantasy, he wondered, to think he and Corrie were likely to become lovers during what remained of her vacation? It seemed more likely that, at most, they